


Thaw

by Jougetsu



Category: Juuni Kokki | Twelve Kingdoms
Genre: M/M, Missing Scene, Post-Book(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-22
Updated: 2011-12-22
Packaged: 2017-10-27 19:17:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/299164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jougetsu/pseuds/Jougetsu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Taiki's reflects on his return to Tai.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thaw

**Author's Note:**

  * For [daphnerunning](https://archiveofourown.org/users/daphnerunning/gifts).



> Set immediately after the last novel 'Shore of Twilight.'

Tai was a kingdom frozen in time. Turbulence had been too long woven into the fiber of its being. Conflicts sprouted and withered in endless cycles like ten thousand red blossoms. Nothing else in the land was in good harvest. Tai’s winters were lengthy and harsh with no equal save perhaps for the climate in the kingdom of Hou. For nearly two full decades the land had been ravaged by every misfortune the gods could bestow upon it. How could one dare to hope that fortune might change?

Such were the thoughts of Taiki, formerly Takasato Kaname, as he lay upon the mountainside curled up next to the suguu, Tiger. A pitiful fire crackled, casting barely any light and still less heat. Even though the moon was at her zenith, the young man could not sleep. General Risai had only fallen asleep from sheer exhaustion and under the belief that the Tai Taiho had preceded her in slumber. Although he was not entirely sure she was asleep so much as quietly resting. There was no need to keep watch as their little cave on the mountain could only be accessed by someone with a youjuu flying beast and who knew where to look for them. No one in the kingdom of Tai would think that a one-armed woman and a frail dark-haired youth were the famed provincial general and the lost kirin. It was both their greatest advantage and disadvantage. Their odd appearance hid them from their enemies, but made it more difficult to rally allies.

Somewhere in the vast frozen nation was his king – imprisoned, injured, or more likely both – almost as lost to him as when he was living in that strange other world of Yamato. A kirin had a keen awareness of his ruler, his master as Heaven had decreed them to be knit unto each other's souls. The first time he had returned to this world Taiki had not known that and even when it had been explained by the patient priestesses of Mount Hou. He knew it now, it gave a name to the hole in his heart since he returned to Japan. Looking back he could only wonder how he survived these past years. The very food was poison to him, Gouran and Sanshi had barely clung to life living in his shadow, and the mixture of yearning and grief for his lost king – all of this had been unknown to conscious self and it was a miracle he lived as many years Over There as he did.  
Perhaps it was the will of Heaven that he should perish in Tai rather than in a foreign country. Without shirei, without an army, without any of his former kirin abilities how was he to survive long enough to rescue Master Gyousou? Risai was kind and encouraging. She bravely escaped Tai to get help and upon their return had made contact with various people to rally forces and find his master. They had been quietly accepted into the Ran provincial capital castle, only to be told that no one dare defy Asen’s rule. The welcome was hushed and the support was wary, coming from a only few low-ranking ministers that dare not openly declare their allegiance. Instead they were given better provisions and encouraged to be on their way. The second provincial castle’s hospitality had been far colder.

From the moment he reached the shores of his country Taiki was acutely aware of how different Tai had seemed since he last laid eyes upon it. Granted he had lived there only a short fraction of his life and had never seen Ran Province, but there was a tension and a sense of decay that made him cringe inwardly. Indeed the winters were hard and the land often stark, but he had sensed a core of proud strength in the people he had known in Hakkei Palace. To him Master Gyousou seemed the embodiment of the Tai spirit and yet he was wholly unique. A man who was almost mythical in his military prowess, but kind enough to arrange an unprecedented visit to Ren for the sake of his kirin’s happiness.

'Kouri' was what his king had named him. The memory of his master’s tone tinged with possessive affection still reverberated through his soul. Would that he could hear it once more, just so that he would have more than his fuzzy memories of that short year when he had been confused and scared for too much of that time. Worried about being a proper kirin, worried about having chosen the wrong king, and lastly worried about his king on the battlefield. In his short life the times of greatest happiness where when he was with Master Gyousou. Even rarer and more briefly when he had been held in his arms – cuddled like spoiled cousin. Was it a thirst for a love that had never come from his ‘birth family’? Was it the rightness of a kirin and his king being close? Or, as he had been forced to confront in his recent dreams, the long ago seeds of a one-sided attraction? Morbidly Taiki had to wonder if being corrupted in the other world was the root of his newly discovered longings for his master.

Or was that simply the way of things between a kirin and his king? He knew precious little of this world’s customs and nothing at all about how adult kirin and kings interacted in private. There had been so much he had been sheltered from. Taiki gave a wry smile in the dark trying to picture Rokuta and King Shouryuu as a couple for they certainly acted as though they were married. And Renrin and King Seitaku could have been a couple for all he knew. Admittedly romantic love hadn’t been on his mind until very recently when it had been viciously implied that Hirose might have harbored a crush on him – improbable as he found the idea – and why he had absolutely zero interest in the opposite sex.

Once more he was alone in his worries. The knot in his stomach was just like the one when he feared he had chosen Gyousou against Heaven’s will. This was hardly a topic that could be brought before Risai and there had been no time to consult the En Taiho when there was the more pressing issue of him and Risai needing to heal before leaving for Tai. Keiki was very dear to him, but Taiki had a sneaking suspicion that while Keiki knew a lot about kirin abilities, relationships were an entirely different matter. He hadn’t seemed much more emotionally mature since last Taiki saw him, but Youko and her rag-tag retainers might be changing that.

Beside him Tiger gave a rumbling purr and Taiki petted his muzzle in the way he’d seen Enki soothe a suguu before. At least youjuu still responded to him, it gave Taiki hope that he wasn’t as changed or corrupted as everyone had been treating him. Master Gyousou might be changed too, but Taiki doubted that any change could be so great that it would erase the love he had for the man. And perhaps, just perhaps Master Gyousou wouldn’t care how changed he was either. The thought unfurled warm and Taiki tried to keep it close to his heart for when the gray dawn was sure to sap his courage.

Tai might be frozen. Heaven might be distant. But Taiki was going to fight for happiness. His resolve was becoming refined and the path was clear. There could be no more rejections at provincial castles and running away. His king was waiting for him and this time Taiki needed to save them both, for the sake of his people and for the sake of the man he loved.

“Risai, we’re going to to Bun Province.”

A goddess had healed him. The other kirin had found him even when his spirit had been poisoned. Miracles did exist, one just had to take them in hand.


End file.
